


meet me at the end of the rainbow

by firetan



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Asexual Character, Demisexuality, Emily Neresprigan (Original Character), Esmeralda Avioles (Original Character), Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Gratuitous Fake Science For The Sake Of Cool, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Original Character(s), Original Pokemon Trainer - Freeform, Trans Female Character, Willow Oxbow (Original Character)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-25
Packaged: 2018-09-01 22:01:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8639830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firetan/pseuds/firetan
Summary: We all want to be the very best, in one way or another. But the very best means different things to everybody.Whatever our very best is, we're going to get there, and hopefully have a good time along the way.





	1. prologue: the opened eyes

I hadn't planned on becoming a Pokémon trainer. 

I really hadn't. Sure, I'd know that it was a possibility, and that it was something that lots of kids did, but somehow it had never really seemed like something I could actually do. I suppose it had to do with my family, in a lot of ways. Neither of my parents worked a lot with Pokémon - my mother is an editor for scientific articles, and my dad teaches theater classes for our town - and my brother's never really been interested in that stuff anyways, although he does like playing with his boyfriend's Poochyena when they hang out. And me? I just haven't had time for it - I love Pokémon, I really do, but school and studying and theater have always just taken up too much time for me to really think about working with them seriously.

I know that must sound really strange - a kid who didn't think about Pokémon all the time? Preposterous! But yes, I existed, and my childhood was actually just fine. It's not like we hated Pokémon, or tried to avoid them - we had a family of Linoons living under our porch for years, we'd feed Skitties and Furrets when they'd wander into our yard, and our trees always had some bird-type or another in them. My dad even helped nurse a wild Magikarp that a bird-type dropped onto the path in front of our house, and he currently lives in our upstairs bathtub (the Magikarp, that is, not my dad).

My friend Azula liked to compare Pokémon to mint chocolate chip ice cream - lots of people really like it, but it's not really everybody's thing, and people can like eating it without it being their absolute favorite flavor. I personally liked to compare them to music - everyone listens to it, but some people get really into it while others are fine with letting it just be background noise.

For me, it was background noise for eighteen years. I guess the universe had other plans though, because everything changed the day I graduated.

Our high school graduation was at the end of May, and it was so sunny that there were grass-types popping up literally everywhere. I'm serious - Bulbasaurs coming out of the fucking woodwork, Budews and Bellossoms just sprouting from the ground right there in our front lawns. Everyone's parents and families were seated in lawn chairs from home out on the grass in the middle of town, facing the stage that the school theater department had built with the help of a few rock- and fire-types. The robes we had to wear - green with gold stripes, since the gym in our city is grass-type - were obnoxiously hot to wear, and a lot of people had their sleeves rolled up and their robes unzipped as they walked across the stage to receive their diplomas. Most of my classmates had one of their Pokémon with them, in their arms or on their shoulder or walking next to them, like Azula's Milotic (and I still have no idea how she managed to raise one, but she and Christmas - yes, her Milotic is named Christmas - are pretty much inseparable).

I was waiting in line next to Mayu and her Ponyta Antioch (Tio for short), waiting for our names to be called and wonder if I should maybe-possibly-should-I-or-shouldn't-I hold her hand, when it happened.

One minute, I was standing next to my best friend who-I-may-or-may-not-have-thought-about-kissing like normal, trying to subtly reach for her hand while I scanned the crowd for Orpheus and Leon and my parents, and the next minute something had leapt onto my back and climbed up to my shoulder. A something with very soft, very fluffy fur that burrowed against my neck and hid under my hair, shivering. I turned to look at Mayu, and she looked just as surprised as I felt, which couldn't be good.

"Mer, since when did you have an Eevee?"

An Eevee? I opened my mouth to ask, but our teacher called her name - "Mayu Peregrina!" - and she turned to walk away across the stage with Tio at her side, leaving me to watch the way her hair shines in the sunlight and wonder why the heck there was an Eevee on my shoulder and why it seemed so scared. When they called (and of course mispronounced) my name - "Esmeralda Avioles!" - I walked across the stage in a daze, and for the life of me I can't remember a thing my teacher said when handing me my diploma because all of my thoughts were swirling around the Pokémon sitting on my shoulder. I sat down between Mayu and James Fields (my other friend that-I-may-or-may-not-have-contemplated-smooching-on-a-regular-basis), and wondered if this was all some weird dream and I was going to wake up tomorrow and find out that I hadn't graduated yet and I didn't have an Eevee (or those urges to kiss my friends because what the heck) and none of this was real.

As we watched the rest of our classmates cross the stage, James leaned over and whispered to me, "I didn't know you had an Eevee, Mer. What's his name?" At his feet, his Growlith Cayenne yawned and leaned over to rest a paw against my leg.

"I--" I felt one of my hands reach up unconsciously to pet the Eevee that was still curled against the side of my neck. "I don't know. He just-- jumped onto my shoulder out of nowhere. He seems like he's scared of something."

Mayu nudged my shoulder. "Hey, once the ceremony's over, let my mom take a look at him? She might be able to figure out what's wrong." Mayu's mom Lena worked at the PokéCenter in town, and she knew a lot about Pokémon physiology and health - went to college for it and everything. If there was anything wrong with the Eevee that seemed to have claimed me as his human, Lena was the one who'd find out.

"Yeah, sounds good."

**\-------------------------------------------**

When we got to the PokéCenter (because Lena insisted on heading over to her office for the matter), the first thing Lena did was raise an eyebrow and shake her head.

"Mer, I know you're supposed to wear glasses, but that's not an Eevee."

As gently as only a doctor can be, she picked up what I was sure was an Eevee but was now looking distinctly more orange and placed him gently on the exam table. He seemed to have fallen asleep, and only stayed on my shoulder through prime positioning, so he didn't put up a fight. Looking at him then, under the white ceiling light… "A Flareon, then. But I could've sworn…" 

"Maybe you just mistook him for an Eevee."

I shook my head at her, because that couldn't be it. I wasn't even the one who saw him first, and neither James nor Mayu need to wear glasses. I could understand confusing an Eevee with a Flareon if the lighting were really bad, but we had been in full sunlight and neither of them would make that sort of easy mistake - they both knew far more about Pokémon than I did. Mayu planned on becoming a Pokémon researcher, and James wanted to become a gym leader. Even Azula was more invested in Pokémon than I was, since she wanted to tour the competition circuit with Christmas when she wasn't studying to be a reporter.

Me? I still wasn't sure what I wanted to do, to be honest. I'd had a lot of ideas, and there were a lot of things that interested me… but I just didn't really know if any of them felt right. Theater had been a passion of mine for years, but I didn't want to do something just because it's what my parent did, and I didn't know if trying to break into such a competitive field is worth it. A part of me kept thinking that I'd end up as one of those poor saps who works at a 9-5 desk job and never gets married or has a family or friends.

"Holy shit!"

James's voice pulled me out of my reveries, and I looked at him in order to find out what the commotion is. He was staring down at the exam table, and when I followed his gaze I saw-- "Huh? Where'd the Flareon go?"

On the exam table, where the Flareon-that-I'm-sure-was-an-Eevee had been peacefully napping, there was now an equally asleep Vaporeon instead. Cayenne whined and pawed at the edge of the table, while Tio stamped a hoof in discomfort. James looked just as confused as I felt, but Mayu was white with surprise and Lena looked thoughtful. With deft hands, she gently poked around the Vaporeon's head for a few moments, before leaning back with a serious expression.

"Mer, do you mind if I keep him overnight? I'd like to run some tests."

Tests? That didn't sound good. "Do you have an idea of what's going on with him?" I'd only had the little guy for maybe half an hour, but hell if I hadn't already gotten attached to him. Small and fluffy always was my type - with Pokémon, that is. (Apparently, my type in people was tall and fair-haired and dorky smiles and named Mayu and James and I needed to stop that train of thought at the station).

Lena's lips twisted into a frown, and she began tying her messy curls into a bun. "I do, but I don't like it and I hope I'm wrong. Mayu, dear, would you let your father know I'll be working late tonight?" Mayu's expression fell slightly, and her mother seemed to remember that our three families had planned on having a celebration dinner together at their house. "Don't worry, I'll come home for dinner. I just want to get back here after to keep an eye on this guy."

When she said that, Mayu perked back up and nodded, steering James and I out of the office in order to leave Lena to her work. Tio and Cayenne followed closely at our heels, playfully batting at each other. 

Everyone seemed to be reassured that Lena would be able to fix whatever was going on, but that whispery back part of my mind was still worried. That Pokémon - whatever he was - had seemed really scared. It had been like he was running from something, and chose me as his hiding place. And whatever he was running from… it was probably related to whatever was wrong with him. My brain just kept going in circles upon circles thinking about it, and I just couldn't stop worrying.

James, ever the most emotionally aware of my friends, seemed to notice that I wasn't really all there. "Hey, Mer, everything okay?" I was still thinking myself into a spiral, so I didn't respond, which he seemed to take as a sign that everything really wasn't okay, because next thing I knew my friend-that-a-part-of-me-really-wants-to-kiss had me wrapped up in as close to a bear hug as his gangly limbs could give, and Mayu was climbing off of Tio's back to join in. It felt… well, it felt really nice, and made me realize just how worried I'd been recently in general. Not just this, but graduation itself had been making me feel anxious for any number of reasons. The worry that my friends were going to go off to do greater things and eventually forget about me, the fear that I wasn't going to have anywhere to move on to from here, the feeling that I was just going to be that disappointment that stagnates early and never becomes anyone worth anything - they'd all been rattling around without be realizing it.

I leaned forward and pressed my face against James's chest (and before you say anything, it was only because I'm literally to short to reach his shoulder, because he's a fucking beanpole), reaching around to grab the fabric of the pretty grey dress Mayu had worn under her gown. I had needed a reminder like that, a reminder that I was still there and they were still there and this wasn't the end; just another beginning.

"Yeah… yeah, I'm okay."

**\-------------------------------------------**

When Lena called early the next morning, I could hear the bad news in her voice before she even said anything.

_"Mer, you've made a very special friend, and that's not a good thing."_

I'd just gotten up, so I was sitting on my bed with my phone in hand and one slipper halfway on my foot, and my heart was already racing a mile a minute. "Wha-- what do you mean?"

_"Your Eevee is an escaped experiment."_ The words were freezing-cold, and I could just picture the stoney expression on Lena's face as she said them. She sounded tired, like she'd stayed up all night working with my Eevee - and she probably had, because this sort of thing was her passion. _"One that was nearly successful, too. I found a hormone chip behind his ear, causing energy spikes and fluctuations that were causing him to shift uncontrollably between his evolutionary forms. The Flareon, the Vaporeon - they were all the same Pokémon. Now, I've removed the chip, which should make him more comfortable and stop most of the shifting, but the genetic changes are still there."_

I rubbed my eyes and stifled a yawn. "Okay, okay, so what does that mean exactly?"

_"Mer, you've taken science classes."_

"Yeah, but not at five AM!"

Finally, her voice seemed to perk up in amusement. _"And thank goodness for that."_ The serious tone returned. _"Technically speaking, that Eevee can now access the genetic code for every one of his evolutions, as long as he has some sort of stimulant manipulating his epigenetic switches. Right now, because I removed the chip, all of the switches have been turned off, but if he were exposed to a strong enough energy--"_

"Like a fire stone or an electric stone, you mean?"

I could just picture her nodding approvingly. _"Or grass or water, yes. This little fella is full of powerful potential, and I can guarantee whoever originally had him is going to want him back."_

At that point, I was fully awake and starting to get dressed, ready to skate down to the lab to see my new friend. "So what should I do? I'm not just going to give him back."

_"I wouldn't tell you too, dear."_ The line fell quiet for a few moments, and I figured she was thinking so I just continued putting on my shorts (it was too hot out for anything longer). Eventually, she spoke up again. _"Do you want my honest advice?"_

"You've never steered me wrong before."

She exhaled, loud enough that I could hear it over the phone. _"Alright. If I were you, I'd take that Eevee and go out to find those evolution stones, one after the other. If you expose him to them for a long enough time - on and off for a week should work - he should hypothetically learn how to trigger the switches on his own without their help. Travel with him, and teach him how to be strong. There's nothing to be gained from trying to hide him away - instead, give him the means to defend himself by doing what his creators could not."_

I paused, one boot halfway on my foot and the other still on the floor. "Wait. Wait a minute. Lena, you're basically telling me to become a Pokémon trainer."

_"Well, you had decided to take a gap year. You have time."_

"That's not-- that's beside the--" It took me a few moments to form a coherent sentence, although in that time I did manage to finish putting my boots and coat on. "Lena, I'm eighteen! People don't become Pokémon trainers at eighteen - that's stuff for kids! I'm too old to start doing something like this - not to mention I'd have no idea where to go! I don't know enough about Pokémon to do this, seriously."

_"But you could learn, couldn't you?"_ Her tone was distinctly amused. _"You're never too old for that, my dear."_

Well, she had a point. And it wasn't like I was going to just up and abandon my new friend. I found myself sighing, quashing the back-of-my-mind voice that was saying this was a really, really bad idea. "Fine. Fine, I'll do it. But not because I want to be the very best or whatever - I just want to help him."

_"Speaking of him, do you have a name in mind?"_

I'd thought about it last night, so I actually did. It had taken a bit of thinking, but then I'd remembered that game that had exploded in popularity a few years ago. Learning about how special this Eevee was had only cemented the decision I'd made last night once the name popped into my head. "Yeah. I'm going to call him Frisk."

Lena actually laughed at that. _"Like the game, right? Well, it suits him."_ She cleared her throat, putting back on her professional voice. _"That settled, please come down to the PokéCenter as soon as you can, and we can start getting you set up for your adventure. I have a lot that you'll need to learn, and I'm sure Mayu and Jamie will want to put together some things to send you off with as well."_

"Got it. See you soon." I hung up and grabbed my backpack, stuffing as many necessary supplies in it as I thought I could. Notebooks, pens and pencils, a bag of chips, my phone and headphones and the wristwatch I kept forgetting to wear. My long jacket, an extra sweater, my glasses case and cleaning supplies, a handful of the hairbands and clips that I usually left in a pile on my bedside table, and a book on Eevees that I'd fished out from the bottom of my bookshelf last night. Feeling about as prepared as I would ever be, I skittered downstairs with a thud-thud-thud of boots on stairs to the kitchen where my mom was making 'congratulations, you graduated' pancakes.

"Mom, I'm going to be a Pokémon Trainer!"


	2. two trainers forward, one tent back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mer meets their future traveling companions - after a minor misunderstanding, of course.
> 
> They didn't really need their tent, anyways.

One of the first things I learned about being a Pokémon Trainer: you have to kill the notion of ever feeling nice and clean ever again.

I'm serious. You spend most of your time bushwhacking through huge forests and sleeping in a tent, and there's literally nowhere to bathe because every body of water might have a poison-type hiding in it and I for one didn't want to risk it. My first month as a Trainer was considerably rough, but Frisk proved to be the best companion I could have ever hoped for, and I did get better at cooking by leaps and bounds, so it wasn't all a horrid mess.

Still, I found myself rather eternally grateful for the fact that Lena took one look at me, laughed out loud, and ordered me to go buy waterproof hiking boots and a long coat with a detachable hood. When I was younger, we'd always see those glorified stories about young trainers who go out with just the clothes on their backs, and they'd always be wearing t-shirts and sneakers. Within the first three days of my journey, I realized it was probably a load of bullshit.

Either that, or they'd been incredibly miserable, which certainly wasn't out of the question.

I'd actually decided to avoid towns if I could - Lena had warned me that most people I ran into would challenge me to battle, that it was practically law for trainers to fight each other if they ran into each other - and I figured that I would just do my best to avoid other people. I'd need to return to civilization for supplies, of course, and perhaps to ask around for rumors… but otherwise? I was fine being away from people - I had my phone (thankfully equipped by Lena with a solar charger), and I had my Pokémon.

Oh yeah, that was another surprise. About two weeks in, while I was walking alongside a river to this big forest where a farmer said I might find a Grass Stone, I may have accidentally caught my second Pokémon.

See, so I was just walking, right? Minding my own business, looking out for berries that I could give Frisk and very specifically not thinking about how much I'd really like to be cuddling with my friends-that-I-still-would-rather-like-to-kiss at the moment, and then I hear this awful racket up ahead. Some sort of bird-type screeching, and a scared-sounding high-pitched buzzing.

Well, as I got closer, I noticed the bird-type in question - a Swellow, I think - hovering over a particularly tall patch of grass and darting in every now and then to stab at something I couldn't quite make out with its beak. Whatever that something was, it was still buzzing, but the sound was getting even higher and a lot more panicked. I wasn't sure what I should do - was it okay for me to interfere with natural stuff like this, or should I just keep walking - but Frisk, bless her (oh yeah - the unstable genetics thing means that Frisk switches sex sometimes. I know, kinda funky, right? Anyways, today she was a she) heart, made the decision for me by leaping off of my shoulder and pouncing on the bird-type.

We didn't end up having to fight, though - the moment Frisk had leapt off of the Swellow and darted back to my feet to wait for instructions, we both heard a shrill cry that caused the bird-type to immediately screech in response and dart off into the air, quickly disappearing into the forest. I turned to look for the source of the cry, but I only managed to catch a glimpse of shimmering red-and-white feathers before whatever-it-was had also vanished. I did catch a sort of feeling - like a little burst of color in the back of my mind - that seemed a bit reassuring, somehow.

Frisk, meanwhile, left my feet once the danger was gone, and trotted over to nose at the patch of grass where the humming was now quieter and a little sad. I knelt down to take a look - whatever it was was probably hurt, but maybe I'd be able to do something to help - and it took me a good minute to spy the absolutely tiny bug-type that was curled up near the ground, looking decidedly roughed-up. I didn't recognize it, but it was really incredibly small and fluffy and pale yellow, with a pointy brown proboscis and large flat wings.

I couldn't really think of any way to heal it (how was I supposed to? It was smaller than my hand! I'd never be able to put any antiseptic or bandages on it - my roll of bandages was wider than it was!), so I figured I could pick it up in a Pokéball and stop by a PokéCenter in the next city I stopped at. I tapped it with the ball and it burst into energy and flowed inside (and that still kind of creeps me out a bit, like -- where do they _GO_?), and I stored the ball on one of the colored hooks I'd sewn onto my favorite belt. I'd have to remember which one - cute yellow bug-type in the yellow hook ball. Got it.

Climbing back onto my shoulder, Frisk mewled slightly and nosed at my cheek.

"Yeah, yeah. Good job, you goofball."

She purred.

 

**\-------------------------------------------**

"Well, Frisky Bits, are you ready for this?"

My Pokémon looked pretty nervous, but nodded his head in what I would peg as determination. To be honest, I was obscenely nervous myself - this would be our first attempt at something we'd hopefully be doing many more times over the next year or so. In my hands, the moss-speckled stone seemed all too innocuous and at the same time almost pulsing with energy. It had taken just over a month to find the Grass Stone, and most of that month had been spent wandering around the forest and avoiding all of the Beedrills that seemed to really want my backpack for some weird reason.

Now, however, we had it, and it was time to put the plan that Lena had laid out into action.

Frisk padded forward, one paw after the other, to press one tentatively against the stone on my lap. The change was immediate, shivering into place from ears to tail as leaf-like curls sprouted from the fur on his head and at his heels, the creamy fur at the tip of his tale bleeding across his body as his fur shortened and became tipped with a warm grass-green. Within moments, the Eevee in front of me had become a Leafeon, but as his dark brown eyes popped open and looked up at me unblinkingly I was sure that nothing was really different other than the new outer shell.

"Alright, that's great. How do you feel?" Frisk tilted his head to the side, twitching the new leaf-shaped tail, and purred quietly. Not hurting at all, then. It seems like Lena's removing the chip really had helped stabilize him. "Great. Now take your paw off, and try to stay in that form as long as you can, alright?"

He nodded and stepped back, tense and focused. It was only perhaps 30 seconds before he was an Eevee again, opening his eyes to look up at me in apprehension.

"It's fine - it's just the first try, after all." I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to say to reassure a Pokémon - especially a survivor of really traumatizing experiments - that he was doing really well and that things were going just fine. "Try to think about how being a Leafeon felt, and see if you can change back on your own?"

Well, that certainly didn't work the first time. Nor the second, third, or sixth times. On the seventh try, after managing to stay as a Leafeon for nearly three minutes, Frisk managed to almost transform back on his own. He didn't quite get all the way, but the colors definitely started bleeding in, and I could see the leafy curls begin to sprout from his fur for a moment before they receded. That, I decided, was more than enough success to warrant taking a break.

I set up my tent next to the crumbly pedestal where I'd found the Grass Stone, and leaned against my backpack in the entrance while texting Mayu. She'd told me that the bug-type I'd found (and had started calling Buttercup in my mind) was a Cutiefly, and was now live-chatting James's training session with his friend Devin and Devin's girlfriend, Ana. Complete with pictures, and boy oh boy could I have kissed her for providing pictures of James, shirtless and dumping cold water on his head to cool off, with Cayenne staring straight at the camera like she just knew that I was on the other end of the image and she was judging me super-hard. (I mean, lets be honest, I would have been entirely willing to kiss Mayu anyways, but the pictures were like enough to pay for a full-on make out session).

While I stared (and definitely _didn't_ drool, not even a little bit, nu-uh) at the pictures my friend sent, Frisk bounced around the campsite, batting at stray leaves and sniffing under toadstools. His mood seemed to have been steadily getting more and more joyous since the day I found him, which I personally took to be a sign that I was doing a good job.

The break seemed to do an even better job, though, since the next time we tried he managed to stay as a Leafeon for nearly ten minutes, and successfully switched back in under two minutes when we tried that as well. We tried switching back and forth for another twenty minutes or so, until he could change between them in a blink. He could only hold the evolved form for about ten minutes before he had to switch back, as we found out afterwards, but at least he could control the switching somewhat.

It seemed to really tire him out, though, so I figured we could settle in for an early supper and bedtime, then start early tomorrow in order to practice with the Stone a bit more before moving on. I hadn't gotten any further than getting out my kitchen set and some hot dogs (what can I say? they're classic camper cuisine) when I heard someone yell from near the edge of the clearing I'd found the Stone in.

"Now, Blaise! Go get 'em!"

The yell gave me enough time to dodge the fireball that was abruptly thrown my way, but unfortunately when I managed to get to my feet and look around I realized that my tent sadly had not avoided the attack, and was now a wire frame half-covered with singed and still smoldering pieces of canvas. As I looked around for the source of the attack, I felt the familiar sensation of Frisk clambering up my back to my shoulder, and I reached up to pat him on the head reassuringly.

The Chimchar that had evidently sent the fireball my way was standing defensively in front of another young adult at the edge of the clearing. She was tall - much taller than me, somewhere around the same height as Mayu (but not nearly as tall as James, who was over a head taller than I was) - and somewhat androgynous, with slight curves and short auburn hair under a pastel blue and gray beanie. The weirdest part, of course, was that she was glaring at me like I'd insulted her dead mother or something (which I'm pretty sure I hadn't. I'm good at remembering my best insults, and that wasn't one of them).

It took me a few moments to remember how speaking works, but once I did-- "Oi, what the fuck was that for? Who tossed sand in your panties to make you think lighting my tent on fire was a fantastic way to say hello?"

She raised an eyebrow at me, apparently unimpressed by what I thought was a fairly witty quip. "Let that Eevee go, or I'll make you."

"Wha-- no way in hell!" Who was this person? Was she one of the people who'd experimented on Frisk? I curled one arm defensively over him as he leapt from my shoulder to my arms, because if this weirdo wanted him she'd have to get through me first. "He's not going back with you!"

"Well, there's no way I'm going to let him stay with someone like you, you bastard!"

"Who're you calling a bastard, you absolute fucking walnut?"

That one seemed to get her, because she actually snorted out loud and had to pause in order to visibly restrain herself from laughing out loud. "Okay, that one was good, but I'm still not letting you go. Blaise, use your--"

"Hey, hey, cut that out."

What the fuck was going on? Had I suddenly become a magnet for every bloody trainer in the area? No, I bet it was the Grass Stone drawing them here. It had to be, because otherwise this was just unreal. The second strange trainer - a young woman maybe a year or two older than me, just a bit shorter than Mayu with a mass of curly brown hair tumbling down her back (and immediately making me feel rather inadequate about my own currently-in-a-half-assed-ponytail locks) - was leaning against a tree a few feet away from the first, another Eevee perched on her shoulder and a Kirlia twirling gayly around her feet.

The first trainer glanced at her incredulously. "You're defending her? She's with Team Rocket, you know - I saw her doing experiments on that poor Eevee. We can't just let her keep hurting it like this!"

Wait, what? Now, that was wrong on so many levels. "Are you fucking with me? Okay, first off, I'm not a girl, you bloody pecan. Secondly, I'm not with any stupid megalomaniac team, and thirdly, Frisk and I-- because he has a name, you know-- were practicing a very particular skill in order to help him make use of the results of the experiments he escaped from before I found him, you absolute fucking raisin!"

"You really do like nuts, don't you?" The second trainer seemed amused, and her eyes were laughing behind round glasses when she walked into the clearing toward me. "Anyways, they do seem to be telling the truth-- you use they, I presume?" I nodded, and she smiled warmly. "So there's really no need to attack them when their Pokémon is clearly exhausted. C'mon - my camp's nearby, you can share my tent."

It definitely didn't sound like an ideal situation, but considering that it was either sharing a tent with this strange (and pretty) woman or stargazing all night, I figured the former really couldn't be too bad. I nodded and went to pack up my kitchen set, carefully putting away the sorry remains of my tent (well, Lena's tent, which she certainly wouldn't be too happy about). I shouldered my backpack and lifted the Grass Stone in one hand, ready to go.

The first trainer watched in confusion, her Chimchar climbing up her back to sit on top of her beanie contentedly. "So you're, er-- I mean, you're not a-- that is, well, I--" Both I and the second trainer turned to look at her, and a sort of warm flush crept across her cheekbones. "I'm, uh, sorry for making that assumption, I guess. I just got-- I mean, I saw it-- er, him-- I saw him going back and forth, and you, and I just thought-- um, well, anyways."

"Uh-huh?" I had only known her for half a minute, and I already would have killed to have the second trainer's patience.

"I, um… if you don't mind, that is, I'd like to-- er, well--"

She smiled. "Join us for camp? Sure, come along. I hope you have your own tent, though - mine's not quite big enough for three unless we're spooning, and I don't think any of us really want to go there quite yet."

"Oh, er, right." The first trainer flushed even brighter, which made me laugh a bit. Once she wasn't attacking me, she seemed to be a bit of a dork - a very well-meaning one, of course. "Thanks, er--?"

"Willow. Willow Oxbow." She held out her hand for them to shake.

"Cool. Great. I'm Emily, by the way. Emily Neresprigen." After shaking Willow's hand, the first trainer— Emily— turned to me, with a sheepish sort of expression. "And you're--"

"Esmeralda Avioles. Call me Mer."

"Right. Cool. Nice to meet you, Mer." Emily bit her lip, eyebrows tilted inwards in a charmingly concerned expression. "Look, I'm, uh, sorry about your tent."

To be honest, I didn't really care. I was okay, Frisk was okay, he could turn into a Leafeon and we were making progress. I hadn't lost my book or my bag or my phone (with all of its precious, precious shirtless-friend data), and I apparently just made two new friends. The tent was the least of my worries.

"Don't worry about it. Nice to meet you, Emily, Willow." I looked between them, and Emily's Chimchar whooped and jumped across our heads in quick succession before leaping into a nearby tree, while Willow's Eevee walked across her shoulders to lean down and nose at Frisk curiously. I couldn't keep myself from starting to smile like an idiot.

"I think we're going to be great friends."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter two! We meet Willow and Emily, their Pokémon, and a few of Mer's new Pokéfriends as well! Who did those feathers belong to, though?
> 
> Please leave feedback! I will love you forever!
> 
> **Edit: I made some edits, because my dear friend Emily that the character is based on decided she was a girl this past summer, and I didn't want the character based on her to use the wrong pronouns or name.**

**Author's Note:**

> Yo! This is just an idea floating in my head that I want to write.
> 
> Mer and Willow and Emily are the pokemon trainer personas of me and my two best (college) friends, because they're the ones who got me to finally play an actual pokemon game (Platinum) and I drew us as trainers and now it's just a thing in my head that I want to make happen. Mayu and James and Azula (and most of the characters in Mer's hometown) are expys of people I know irl, but only very loosely. More than anything, they're their own characters.
> 
> Note: Mer's Eevee, Frisk, is based on the Eevee that Red rescues from Team Rocket in the Pokemon Adventures manga (which I know more about than the actual games). That Eevee was an experiment and has unstable genetics that cause it to switch uncontrollably between its different evolutions. Red eventually finds a way to control this by gathering the various stones that can make it evolve, so they can control how/when it switches. That's kind of the basis I'm running on with Frisk as well.


End file.
